Thousands of Turkish protesters poured onto the streets and reoccupied a central Istanbul park as the police withdrew after three days of clashes that sparked a massive anti-regime demonstration.
The police retreat from Gezi Park and nearby Taksim Square today came as supporters of the opposition Republican People's Party marched on the square. After reoccupying the park, they danced and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who appealed for an end to protests while ordering an investigation into police use of pepper spray.
Police fired pepper-gas canisters at protesters who threw bottles and stones. Erdogan said his government would continue with plans to rebuild an Ottoman barracks on the park to "revive history" and turn Taksim Square into a pedestrian zone. The project triggered the protests in central Istanbul.
"Shoulder to shoulder against Tayyip," the crowd chanted as youths dragged away metal barriers that were erected around the park and blocked streets nearby five-star hotels.
Police dispersed thousands of protesters in Istanbul and Ankara earlier today, following similar clashes in several other cities late yesterday. Those at the Istanbul rallies, including students and doctors, said that they were resisting an increasingly authoritarian regime under Erdogan.
'Rebuild Barracks'
"We will rebuild the Gunner Barracks," Erdogan told an exporters meeting in Istanbul today, saying that the building had stood at the site until it was torn down by the pro-secular Republican People's Party in 1940. "Taksim cannot be a place where extremist groups run wild. Police will be there today and they will be there tomorrow."
A shopping mall or a city museum might be included in the project, Erdogan said. A nearby cultural center, named after modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, should also be replaced with a modern opera building, Erdogan said. That suggestion may spark protests by those who fear that Ataturk's secular principles are being eroded by Erdogan's party, which has promoted Islamist policies.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Republican party leader, said he decided to visit Taksim today with his lawmakers after canceling a rally on the Asian side of Istanbul. Thousands of protesters had marched across the Bosphorus bridge toward Taksim in the European side of the city at dawn before police stopped them in the Besiktas neighborhood. Kilicdaroglu accused Erdogan of "becoming a trouble for the nation."
'Dictating Will'
"We don't want 1940s Germany, we want 2013s Turkey," Kilicdaroglu said, drawing a comparison between Hitler and Erdogan. "We want democracy and freedom in Turkey."
The U.K. Foreign Office warned Britons against traveling to Istanbul, Ankara and other Turkish cities because of the protests, according to a statement today on its website.
The protests are a reaction to Erdogan's "oppressive and pro-Islamic policies" including adopting strict limits on alcohol sales and promotion as well as the government's refusal to allow labor unions to rally in Taksim on May Day, said 24-year-old Cansu Kelesoglu, who said he works at a bank.
"We feel victorious, finally people are awakening," said Yasemen Sekmen, a 23-year-old student. "Gezi Parki is just a symbol, more and more people are standing up against Erdogan."
Erdogan, enjoying strong electoral support in his third consecutive term as prime minister, said he could easily respond to the protesters with a rally of 1 million people.
"Everyone is free to express their own views, but not free to carry out an occupy action or to harm shops or people trying to cross the road," he said. "All attempts apart from the ballot box are not democratic."
To contact the reporter on this story: Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara at shacaoglu@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
02 Jun, 2013
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